Reflection
by WeasleySeeker
Summary: Preparing to be married off the minute she leaves school, Andromeda Black starts to reflect on who she really is. Will she choose what is right or what is easy?
1. April 1971

_April 1971_

Normally when Andromeda was in Madam Malkin's, it was during the summer holidays when the shop was totally packed. Stressed-looking shop assistants would rush around trying to cater for the mass of customers, wanting school robes, work robes, dress robes or just ordinary everyday robes. She would have to wait up to half an hour to be served, and then she would be shoved out of the door as quickly as the staff could manage.

At Easter, it was different. There were the odd one or two customers popping in and out, but nothing like the rush that Andromeda was used to. So she could feel the eyes of most of the staff on her. It made her feel even more self-conscious than she would have done otherwise.

"So, what do you think?" the shop assistant asked hopefully for the fifth time that afternoon.

Andromeda surveyed her reflection warily. It was a beautiful dress, certainly; white, long and flowing, with little embellishments on the rib cage and all down the skirt. The material was lovely too - silk, and clearly very expensive (money was obviously no object in the Black family). But it just didn't feel right. She couldn't imagine herself walking down the aisle in something so... traditional. (Or at all, really.) Andromeda Black was anything but traditional. She looked into that mirror and didn't see _herself_ looking back at her.

"It's a bit... frilly," she said lamely, and the assistant's face noticeably fell as her mother and sister groaned.

"Andromeda! You can't just reject every dress in the shop!" her mother scolded impatiently. "At this rate, you'll be getting married in a t-shirt and jeans!"

If she was honest, that idea sounded very attractive to Andromeda at that moment. Not that she wanted to get married at all. And certainly not to Rabastan. But her mother couldn't know that.

"But Andi, why don't you go for the second one you tried on? It was beautiful," whined Narcissa, who had grown out of her Hogwarts robes and therefore been dragged along for the occasion.

"I know," Andromeda sighed, starting to change out of the dress and back into her ordinary clothes. "It just isn't... _me_."

"Well what _is_?" her mother demanded exasperatedly. "We'll have to get some kind of personal designer or something... I'll have to see if anyone can get you in before you go back to school..."

"We still have a few more designs for you to view," the assistant said quickly, but Druella waved her off dramatically.

"No, I'm sick of this place," she complained. "Andromeda, Narcissa, come. You can charge the robes to our bank account," she added as the shop assistant opened her mouth to object, and she swept out of the shop, leaving her daughters to follow in her wake.

Andromeda walked slightly apart from her mother and sister, thinking. Her mother's simple words had spiralled off a deep train of thought. _Well what_ is_? _It was a fair question. What kind of a person _was_ Andromeda? She liked to think that she was different from the other Slytherins, that she had morals and had more sense than to fall in with the ridiculous beliefs of the Black family and families like it.

But in reality, she led a double life. Really thinking about her reflection had driven home the fact that on the surface, it seemed like she was just the same as people like her mother and sisters. What was the point in having beliefs and keeping them inside, not acting on them? She didn't believe that Muggle-borns were any different from herself, but she didn't tell them that, did she? More importantly, she didn't tell her parents that. And now she was being controlled, forced into marriage the minute she left school, and she wasn't even objecting to it. What was wrong with her?

* * *

**A/N: Um, it's a bit stupid of me to be starting this when I already have three other multichaps on the go, but this idea has been nagging at me for so long that I just had to get some of it written down!**

**This is for three challenges on HPFC: the Forbidden Love Competition, the Disney Song Challenge (my song is obviously 'Reflection' from _Mulan_) and the Harry Potter 10k.**

**This chapter is something of a prologue; the others will probably be longer. They will be dotted around the years as Andromeda reflects on who she is and where she will go from here. The main pairing will be Ted/Andromeda (which you will see in a few chapters), but there will be a fair bit of Andromeda/Rabastan as well.**

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR, and therefore do not own Harry Potter. Sorry :)**


	2. September 1964

_September 1964_

The countryside was a blur to Andromeda as she leant against the window, watching it fly by as the train carried her further and further from home. She could barely contain her excitement. She'd been waiting all her life for this day, the day she was making the journey to Hogwarts for the first time. Finally, she'd be allowed to learn to use her magic properly, to exploit her abilities and become _someone_.

She would have been content staring out of the window for the whole journey but she was kind of in the way, standing in the middle of the corridor like she was, and besides, she realised it would probably be a lot more comfortable to look out of the window whilst sitting on a seat in a compartment. With difficulty, she lifted her trunk and her owl and struggled along the corridor with them, realising that she probably looked quite ridiculous.

Sure enough, she noticed some older boys sniggering as she went past. Humiliated, Andromeda fumed beneath the surface. Did they not know who she was? She was from one of the most respectable Pureblood families in Wizarding history, and all her life she had been used to the recognition that came with that. But nobody knew who she was yet. She'd have to make an impression. She scowled at them in her most Black-like fashion as she passed them, and the look seemed to alarm them somewhat; first years weren't often that confident. She smirked.

Andromeda walked the length of the train looking for an empty compartment, but there weren't any. She sighed. There were a lot of familiar faces in the compartments she passed - family friends, mostly, along with Bellatrix and some of her Rosier cousins - but none of them were first-years, so she didn't think they'd want her intruding. Reaching the end of the train, she gave in and entered a compartment.

It was empty except for one boy who, judging by his size and the nervous look on his face, was also a first year.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asked hesitantly.

The boy looked delighted. "No, of course not - I don't know anyone, so I could do with someone to talk to," he babbled. "What's your name?"

"Andromeda _Black_," she told him, emphasising her surname, but this seemed to bear little or no significance to the boy.

"Andromeda," he repeated as she sat down opposite him. "I've never heard that name before. It's pretty."

"It's a galaxy," she informed him proudly. "My father showed me where it is in the sky. Everyone in my family is named after stars, except my sister Narcissa. It's a tradition."

"You sound like you have a very interesting family," the boy commented. Andromeda was still surprised that he hadn't heard of them. "Is it just you and Narcissa? Or are there more of you?"

"No, there's Bellatrix as well. She's already at Hogwarts; she's a third year. And Narcissa isn't old enough yet."

"Are you a first year too?" he asked, clearly hoping that she was so that he could get there at least knowing someone's name.

"Yeah," she told him, not knowing what else to say and the conversation ground to a halt. Andromeda suddenly realised she'd been very rude - she didn't know a thing about the boy sitting opposite her. "So what's your name?" she asked him.

"Ted," he said, smiling slightly. "Not as interesting as yours. I've always wished I had a more exciting name."

Andromeda laughed awkwardly, not really knowing how she was meant to react to that. "So..." she said, casting around for conversation. "Know what house you'll be in, Ted?"

"No idea," he told her truthfully. "You?"

"Slytherin," she said immediately. "My whole family is. I can't imagine what they'd say if I wasn't."

"Oh," he said, failing to hide the shock in his voice. "How do they decide, anyway?" he asked her. Andromeda was astonished; how could he not know? Had his parents not told him?

Before she could answer, the compartment door slid open and Bellatrix entered, already dressed in her Slytherin robes.

"There you are, Andi, I've been looking everywhere for you," she complained. "I need to borrow Taurus," she said, gesturing towards Andromeda's eagle owl.

"Bella! What's wrong with your own owl? And who are you writing to anyway?" Andromeda demanded. This was so like Bellatrix - the only time she ever spoke to Andromeda these days was when she wanted something. They used to be so close, until Bellatrix went off to Hogwarts and started to think herself all superior.

"Father borrowed my owl this morning, and not that it's any of your business, but I need to write home and get Mother to send on my cloak, since I left it behind," Bellatrix snapped. "So can I borrow her or not?"

"Yes, of course you can - sorry," Andromeda said sincerely. She'd been a bit short with her sister; she must have been more nervous than she'd realised.

Bellatrix waved the apology off and busied herself with tying the letter onto the owl's outstretched leg.

Andromeda suddenly remembered that Ted was in the room; he'd been sitting there awkwardly throughout the whole exchange. "This is my sister, Bellatrix," she told him, even though it was quite obvious.

"Hi, I'm Ted," he told Bellatrix nervously, clearly sensing her formidable personality, and he held out his hand for her to shake.

Bellatrix turned around and eyed his hand disgustedly, looking at him as if he was from another planet. "Ted who?" she demanded. "What family are you from?"

"Ted Tonks," he said, looking confused as to why she would the question.

"I don't know that name," Bellatrix said curiously. "What do your parents do?"

Looking intimidated by the interrogation, Ted replied, "Well my dad's an accountant and my mum-"

"They're _Muggles?!_" Bellatrix shrieked. "Come away from this scum, Andromeda," she instructed, dragging Andromeda's luggage down from the rack. "Filthy little Mudblood," she spat as she pulled Andromeda out of the compartment. "How dare you speak to us? We have some of the purest magical blood in Wizarding history."

Andromeda just caught a glimpse of Ted's hurt and confused face as she was dragged from the compartment.

She cursed herself for not realising sooner. It explained a lot of things: his fascination by her family, not knowing what house he'd be in, not even knowing about the Sorting. But... she'd never actually met a Mudblood before. The way her parents spoke about them, she'd thought it would be obvious. Ted didn't look like a filthy animal; he just looked like a normal, scared first year - just how she felt.

* * *

**A/N: Yes, I know, it's been forever since I updated and I apologise. Things have been piling up for me recently... but anyway, here you go! Hope you enjoyed :)**

**I don't think that Andromeda would have been against her family's ideas from a young age, since before Hogwarts she wouldn't have had any contact with Muggle-borns, and I think when she started Hogwarts she would have started the gradual realisation, so these are the beginnings of that. Thoughts?**


End file.
